YOD Gallery (Osaka)​

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Shoichi Ida

Solo Exhibition​​

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Between — Traces of Encounters

 

・Artist​

Shoichi Ida

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October 17 (Sat) – October 31 (Sat), 2026
Gallery Hours: 1:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Closed: Sundays
Venue: YOD Gallery, Nishitenma, Osaka

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YOD Gallery is pleased to present Between — Traces of Encounter, a solo exhibition by Shoichi Ida (1941–2006) in Osaka.

Bringing together works created between 1979 and 2005, the exhibition traces Ida’s lifelong exploration of Surface is the Between across a range of media, including paper, painting, ceramics, and bronze.

In 2027, YOD Gallery will dedicate its presentation in the Insights sector of Art Basel Hong Kong to Shoichi Ida.

In 2026, marking twenty years since Ida’s passing, his work is receiving renewed attention in Japan. The Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art presented a special exhibition dedicated to Ida as part of its spring collection display. From October 24, the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art will present a major exhibition commemorating the twentieth anniversary of his death, bringing together all 401 works from his lifelong series Tantra for the first time.

Born in Kyoto, Ida began working with lithography in the 1960s before expanding his practice into painting, ceramics, bronze sculpture, and installation. Rather than treating printmaking simply as a means of reproduction, he reconsidered it as a site of encounter between materials, actions and their consequences, and humanity and nature, developing a distinctive artistic language.

For Ida, the “surface” was neither merely the exterior of a material nor a boundary separating two things. It was a site where different entities meet, interact, and leave traces of their encounter.

“Surface is the Between.”

Paper and water, vertical and horizontal, body and matter, nature and humanity. Ida’s interest lay not in these elements individually, but in the relationships that emerge between them.

The exhibition traces the development of this thinking through works spanning different materials and techniques. In A Leaf (1979), molded kozo paper is combined with lithography. In Capillary Attraction (1980), the movement of water through paper becomes an integral part of the creative process. The exhibition also features the oil painting series Painted Echo – Spring (1991) and Split Tea Bowl (1991), made from bronze and lacquer.

The absorption of water into paper, the contact between materials, the effects of gravity and pressure: rather than imposing complete control over his materials, Ida allowed physical processes and natural forces to participate in the making of his works. The resulting forms are not simply images, but traces of encounters between different entities.

The exhibition title, Traces of Encounter, reflects this central aspect of Ida’s artistic practice.

As Ida’s work undergoes renewed examination in Japan, YOD Gallery seeks to bring his philosophy of the “Between” into a broader international context through this exhibition and its forthcoming presentation at Art Basel Hong Kong in 2027.